FBI Director James B. Comey sharply criticized Apple on Thursday “for developing forms of smartphone encrytption so secure that law enforcement officials cannot easily gain access to information stored on the devices — even when when they have valid search warrants,” Craig Timberg and Greg Miller report for The Washington Post.
“His comments were the most forceful yet from a top government official but echo a chorus of denunciation from law enforcement officials nationwide. Police have said that the ability to search photos, messages and Web histories on smartphones is essential to solving a range of serious crimes, from murder to child pornography to attempted terrorist attacks,” Timberg and Miller report. “‘There will come a day when it will matter a great great deal to the lives of people…that we will be able to gain access’ to such devices, Comey told reporters in a briefing. ‘I want to have that conversation [with companies responsible] before that day comes.'”
MacDailyNews Take: Fear mongering. How did these people do their jobs before 2007 when Steve Jobs delivered the smartphone to the world?
They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. – Benjamin Franklin
“He said he could not understand why companies would ‘market something expressly to allow people to place themselves beyond the law,'” Timberg and Miller report. “Comey’s remarks followed news last week that Apple’s latest mobile operating system, iOS 8, is so thoroughly encrypted that the company is unable to unlock iPhones or iPads for police… For detectives working a tough case, few types of evidence are more revealing than a smartphone… But the era of easy law enforcement access to smartphones may be drawing to a close as courts and tech companies erect new barriers to police searches of popular electronic devices.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: A note to FBI Director James B. Comey: Dear lazy bastard, stop whining and go read the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution for what sounds like will be the first time in your life.
Again, prior to 2007, there were no evidence bonanzas from warrantless searches and seizures available right in suspects’ pockets and, yet, somehow, law enforcement personnel actually managed to solve crimes without infringing citizen’s basic constitutional rights. Use valid search warrants the way you used them before Steve Jobs gave the world the modern smartphone and tablet.
Let’s go back to following the U.S. Constitution, shall we? If it takes force from leaders like Apple for constitutional rights to be enforced, so be it.
Related articles:
Apple thinks different about privacy – September 23, 2014
Apple’s iOS Activation Lock reduces iPhone thefts, Samsung phone thefts skyrocket – September 18, 2014
Apple CEO Tim Cook ups privacy to new level, takes direct swipe at Google – September 18, 2014
Apple will no longer unlock most iPhones, iPads for government, police – even with search warrants – September 18, 2014
Would you trade privacy for national security? Most Americans wouldn’t – August 6, 2014
Apple begins encrypting iCloud email sent between providers – July 15, 2014
Obama administration demands master encryption keys from firms in order to conduct electronic surveillance against Internet users – July 24, 2013
U.S. NSA seeks to build quantum computer to crack most types of encryption – January 3, 2014
Apple’s iMessage encryption trips up U.S. feds’ surveillance – April 4, 2013
The government makes the assumption that all Americans have criminal intent behind every action they take. Their belief is that we are all guilty until proven innocent, the same problem many cops and others seem to have with black males. We don’t live in the Minority Report. We are not defined by our search history or the government would really be in trouble.
Later, FBI Director James B. Comey went on to chastise home centers for selling window blinds that were not “see-throughy” enough to allow the FBI to properly protect “people.”
Must suck when Apple does really take security seriously.
Tim Cook said it himself. Even if they did get a warrant we have nothing to give them because the encryption is so good there is no key.
funny:
1. FBI director’s logic: people can’t be beyond law when his institution BREAKS LAW?!
2. stop WHINING – “work it bitch” http://youtu.be/pt8VYOfr8To
policing worked before SmartPhones!
do your job – lazy asses.
3. Mass Surveillance/Spying has NO IMPACT: not a single instance of terrorism was thwarted by mass spying. (Bloomberg: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-13/nsa-data-has-no-discernible-impact-on-terrorism-report.html)
4. how about a camera up each gov staff’s a_s and in their privacy everywhere 24/7?! is that Democratic ENOUGH?!
5. Security is not Freedom. Freedom IS security. Freedom comes 1st and foremost. Bastardizing/diluting/raping democratic freedom can not be excused. it is not naive. it is fundamentally everyone’s right.
6. obviously, mass spying has nothing to do with democracy or security but GREED by the few.
7. Total Orwellian control – how about CONTROLLING yourself, Mr. gov.?!
8. how about a public group holding Gov. ACCOUNTABLE for following law not corruption and protecting the hard-working, tax-paying, law-abiding citizens!? Before then, Democracy is a farce! Public consent is the only way forward or Earth is Hell, not Heaven and there’s no point in living
9. APPLE should be hailed as biggest US hero for standing up to the supposed world’s Greatest Country’s Constitutional Rights
I LOVE my country but I fear my government.
While I applaud Apple for better password security, I can’t help but worry that this is all for show, and that the NSA forced Apple to engineer a backdoor for them. Trust…but verify.
We are free to always build a better lock. It does not matter who wants to get in. The point of the lock is our own personal safety. If the FBI wants to get into my phone, all they have to do is ask. I might say yes, I might say no. If the have to ask, then I am okay with that. If they don’t have to ask, then there’s a problem with the system.